Hugh "Duffy" Daugherty
Guard, Assistant Coach
Emeigh, Pennsylvania
Hugh "Duffy" Daugherty is beloved by countless college football fans for his wisdom, heart and long-lasting quotes like "a tie is like kissing your sister." Daugherty played guard for the Orange from 1937-39 and was team captain during his senior year. After graduating, Daugherty stayed on the SU sidelines as an assistant. However, military service caused Daugherty to put his coaching career on hold. In 1946, Daugherty returned to Syracuse with a Bronze Star, one of the army's most prestigious individual honors.
Duffy would stay at SU for just one year, helping fellow Hall of Famer Clarence "Biggie" Munn guide the Orange to a 4-5 record. After Munn accepted the Michigan State head coaching position before the 1947 season, Daugherty followed him to East Lansing, where he served in an assistant capacity.
After Munn's retirement, Daugherty embarked on a 19-year tenure that is still the longest in the history of the team. His teams finished in the top ten of the final AP poll seven times and finished atop the coaches poll at the end of the 1965 season. His 1966 squad won the national championship in controversial fashion.
The #2 Spartans were playing their rivals, the #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, in East Lansing on November 19 and both teams were undefeated. With the score tied at 10-10 and 1:10 remaining in the game, Fighting Irish head coach Ara Parseghian called for his team to run out the clock rather than risk a turnover trying to score.
Daugherty was enshrined in 1984 as a member of the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana.
